How-To Geek

When Lexus launched its LS 400 sedan in 1989, it introduced a new car with a new philosophy: deliver levels of refinement normally reserved for European luxury manufacturers, beat them on price, and back it with a level of quality the industry hadn't seen before. That philosophy underscores every Lexus product to this day, including the LX, the brand's full-size flagship SUV.

Most Excel users never look beyond the ribbon, which means they miss some of the app's most powerful workflow tools. From live-updating dashboard snapshots to hidden shortcuts that prevent data-entry mistakes, these four off-ribbon features will completely change how you use Excel.

I have a cloud-synced calendar on my phone and computer, which I use to track work, plans, and reminders. I figured Home Assistant's built-in calendar was surplus to my requirements.

As someone who has watched a lot of television over her twenty-something years, I’ve noticed a trend in the industry: many comedic actors, who were primarily known for sitcoms, sketches, or other hilarious work, have shifted into dramatic roles. While this isn’t necessarily a new thing, it’s still intriguing to see the difference in the actors' style — and just be in complete awe of their talents.

Homelabbing is a great way to escape an ever-increasing number of subscription services, and there are dozens of great free and open-source self-hosted alternatives out there. However, there is some software that is worth paying a one-time fee for, especially if you're looking for a setup that minimizes tinkering.

The ESP32 is a cheap microcontroller that powers sensors, toys, communication devices, and all manner of low-power electronics. It’s a favorite among hobbyists thanks to its versatility, price, and excellent software and hardware support.

Adobe has had a stranglehold on photo editing for a long time, and for most people, that means paying a monthly subscription for tools they may not fully use. The alternatives that exist tend to either cap out at basic adjustments or fall apart once your files get large enough. DaVinci Resolve was already the best free video editing software, but now it has got an upgrade.

If you’re in the market for a compact hybrid sedan, there’s a good chance the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Corolla Hybrid are both on your shortlist. They’re two of the most obvious choices for drivers who want efficiency and practicality without moving into SUV territory.

Luxury subcompact SUVs are getting incredibly expensive, with many mainstream buyers now questioning whether premium badges are still worth the extra money. In a segment where pricing can climb past $45,000 surprisingly quickly, value is becoming just as important as performance, technology, and cabin quality. That is exactly why one compact British crossover is beginning to stand out against some much more expensive rivals.

Travel can be stressful and annoying even under the best circumstances, and one of my least favorite activities is getting everything connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I'm staying. Will there be a captive portal? Is the captive portal going to work correctly on all devices? How many devices can I connect to the Wi-Fi?

While Linux is a great OS, and getting better on the desktop all the time, you don't have to run it to get the benefit of some great open-source apps. Many open-source programs that are popular on Linux distros have native Windows versions. Here are some of my favorites.

In most cases, having a single SSID (Service Set Identifier) that combines all available Wi-Fi bands on your router is the way to go. But sometimes, it’s better to create multiple SSIDs for one reason or another. I’ve used two SSIDs on my network for years, and I’m not going back. Here’s why you should consider doing the same.

Reading in your twenties as a young woman is familiar: you loved it as a kid, burned out after high school, and now books are big again. Most of us were former readers trying to rekindle our love of reading.

Back in the early days of Android, it was common to root your phone so you could "hibernate" or "freeze" battery-killing apps. They wouldn't be able to wake up the device's CPU or consume any system resources. These days, Android has built-in features to stop battery-leeching apps, but you can still freeze apps, and you don't even need root access to do it anymore.

Netflix's documentary catalog is something I can never get enough of, and when I begin my streaming session for the weekend, I am never out of fresh documentaries to binge-watch. Be it true crime, sports, biographies, or science, Netflix's documentary collection is never-ending.

I happen to have a lot of old gaming PC parts scattered around the drawers and bins of my office. This comes from years of building PCs professionally, but it also meant that I could simply repurpose my old gaming desktop into a home server instead of buying a dedicated NAS.

Some Ring doorbells can use AI features to interact with visitors when you're not home. I ditched my Ring doorbell for a Reolink doorbell that runs fully locally, but I wondered if I could recreate a similar feature using a local LLM. I was partially successful.

The camera experience has always been a big part of what sets Pixel phones apart from other Android devices. While some features are genuinely exclusive, others aren’t as stuck in the walled garden as you might think. For example: Magic Eraser.

If you were an early NVMe adopter or just like pulling apart old laptops for parts, you’ve probably got one or two tiny 64GB or 128GB NVMe SSDs lying around. They’re too small to realistically use as primary storage in a modern desktop or laptop, but it’s also hard to justify leaving them unused in a drawer—and they don’t exactly make for good "cold" storage anyway.

I've started purchasing physical media and digitizing it to build my own media library. I could put this all on a Plex or Jellyfin server, but I decided to purchase an Open Source Media Center box instead—and this has been the single best TV upgrade I've ever made.